Soledad Mountain rises just south of the Mojave, its rocky slopes bearing the stories of over a century of mining. Gold was first found here in 1894, when prospectors chased the Queen Esther and other veins. Early tunnels, stamp mills, and mercury pans yielded approximately five million dollars’ worth of gold and silver before activity slowed by 1914.
The Great Depression brought the mountain back to life. In 1933, George Holmes struck the Silver Queen vein, drawing in investors from South Africa. By 1935, the Golden Queen Mining Company had built a modern underground operation. From 1935 to 1942, the mine was the largest producer in southern California’s desert, until a federal wartime order shut down all gold mining.
After the war, the mountain quieted. The mill was dismantled, and with gold fixed at $35 an ounce, few miners could make a living. That changed in the 1980s, when new heap-leach technology made lower-grade ores profitable. Golden Queen Mining, a Canadian firm, consolidated the claims, drilled thousands of feet, and by 2016 reopened Soledad as a modern open-pit, heap-leach mine.
Geologically, Soledad Mountain is a volcanic dome complex of rhyolite and latite. These brittle rocks fractured to host dozens of quartz veins. The deposit is a low-sulfidation epithermal system, rich not just in gold but also silver—often five ounces of silver for every ounce of gold.
Today, lined leach pads, water monitoring, and wildlife protections stand where old shafts and tailings once scarred the land. The mine has produced over 340,000 ounces of gold and 3.5 million ounces of silver since 2016. Now owned by Andean Precious Metals, Soledad is one of California’s last working gold mines, carrying forward a desert legacy that began 130 years ago.
References
- Mindat.org. Soledad Mountain (Golden Queen Mine), Mojave-Rosamond District, Kern County, California, USA. Mineral locality database. Accessed August 2025.
https://www.mindat.org/loc-80502.html - Mojave Desert. Desert Fever: Soledad Mountain. Mining history of the Mojave Desert. Accessed August 2025.
https://mojavedesert.net/desert-fever/soledad-mountain.html - Construction Equipment Guide. Golden Queen Mining: History in the Making. Published March 2015.
https://www.constructionequipmentguide.com/golden-queen-mining-history-in-the-making/24706 - Golden Queen Mining Company Ltd. Soledad Mountain Project. Project overview and operations (archived site). Accessed August 2025.
https://www.goldenqueen.com/project/soldedad-mountain/ - U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Technical Report on the Soledad Mountain Project, Kern County, California. NI 43-101 Report, 2015.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1025362/000106299315001070/exhibit99-1.htm - Mining Data Online. Soledad Mountain (Golden Queen) Mine. Production, Reserves, and Technical Summary. Accessed August 2025.
https://miningdataonline.com/property/596/Soledad-Mountain-Golden-Queen-Mine.aspx